The Cats head to the land of petroleum fumes hoping to repeat last year’s performance.
A year ago, K-State welcomed Houston to the Bill for their first-ever meeting and absolutely dog-walked the Cougars in a 41-0 rout. The game was effectively over so early that Will Howard — who was 15-17 with 2 touchdowns — didn’t even break the 200-yard mark. DJ Giddens didn’t get 100. And K-State still put almost 400 yards on the Cougar defense.
The Cougars went on to a 4-8 season, and they’re only slightly better this year. Can the Wildcats keep that big zero on the scoreboard? Can the offense roll? We’ll find out.
The Game
The 17th-ranked Kansas State Wildcats (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) visit the Houston Cougars (3-5, 2-3 Big 12).
As noted, this is only the second meeting between the two teams. Of course, Houston has a new coach this year: Willie Fritz, who is 1-0 against the Cats as he was in charge for Tulane’s surprise win in Manhattan back in 2022. Something has to give, one presumes.
Houston isn’t great. They did beat TCU, but TCU is capable of losing to nearly anyone this year. They also beat Utah, who… is, well, worse than Houston. Standings don’t lie. Houston’s losses have been to Cincinnati and Iowa State, for which they can’t really be blamed, a subpar Oklahoma team and UNLV, teams that aren’t better than K-State, and… Kansas, who absolutely blew them out two weeks ago.
Quarterback Donovan Smith, who helped K-State beat his own team last year, has completed 65% of his passes — for only 867 yards and four touchdowns against eight interceptions. Houston has rushed for only 1,176 yards on the season, which is barely more than Giddens and Joe Jackson combined, never mind Avery Johnson and Dylan Edwards. They’re averaging 15.6 points per game and giving up over 22, a number which went down thanks to 60 minutes against the Utah offense last week. K-State’s scoring 32.8 and giving up under 22.
What we’re saying is that every indication here is that you’ll be comfortably relaxing by 4:00 pm, but you never know what weirdness could happen, especially given the weather forecast.
Kickoff
Saturday, November 2, 2:30pm CT at TDECU Stadium (40,000) in Houston, Texas.
Tickets
You can get in the door for under $10. With a couple of exceptions, every ticket is under $75, and the average ticket, well, give someone a picture of Andrew Jackson and you’ll get a ticket and change.
Weather
The weather is going to be gross. It’s supposed to start raining early in the morning, ruining your tailgate, and thunderstorms are in the forecast for a six-hour window between 11am and 4pm, which may result in delays. But hey, the temperature will be in the high 70s all day long.
Odds
The Cats opened at -9.5, and it’s gotten worse for Houston ever since. DraftKings currently has the line at -13 with the over at 46, indicating a 30-16 win for K-State. The money line is -550 for K-State, +410 for Houston. Oddshark’s computer is even more purple, projecting a 34-14 win.
Television
After a week on a secondary network, K-State returns to a primary as the game will be on FOX. Jason Benetti, Brock Huard, and Allison Williams have the call.
Radio
As always, Wyatt Thompson, Stan Weber, and Matt Walters will be on hand on the K-State Sports Network as well as via satellite on SiriusXM 111 or 198.
Internet Streaming
The game will stream on the FOX Sports app (cable/satellite subscription required). Audio available via kstatesports.com. Live stats provided by StatBroadcast.
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